


Persistent Heat Syndrome

by malapert



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:22:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28146054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malapert/pseuds/malapert
Summary: Nolan Patrick hasn't spoken to Travis Konecny since July 2019.  15 months.  It's complicated.  But it's about to get better.
Relationships: Travis Konecny/Nolan Patrick
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Persistent Heat Syndrome

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flawsinthevoodoo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flawsinthevoodoo/gifts).



**10 AM EDT, October 16, 2020, Port Stanley, Ontario**

His phone has been blowing up for the past 15 minutes. Travis can hear it chirping away inside the cabin, but he’s too lazy to go find it and see what’s up. He’s in off-season mode. True, it’s October, which is a weird time for the off season. And maybe Port Stanley is too chilly for the usual off season routine of long days spent fishing on the lake. But better to be in Ontario than Philly in the pandemic and who knows when the season will start. It’s home. He needs the downtime and he is taking it.

Travis leaves the team group chat in the off season and his phone gets quiet. Travis mostly just leaves it turned off but he was waiting for a text from his trainer about whether the ice center would be open today. The text alerts keep coming so something must really be up. Travis isn’t sure he wants to know what’s going on. 

News usually isn’t good at this time of year. Especially this year. The newly-extended CBA means a flat salary cap for the next three years. Lots of guys are being traded, bought out, or on waivers. Teammates come and go, that’s the business. But it’s hard to lose a teammate. The first to go this off season was Stewie. He retired but at least he’s staying with the Flyers organization. Last year they lost Simmer to Buffalo and now he’s with the Leafs. Travis hopes it isn’t a trade. Maybe it isn’t a trade. Maybe it’s good news. Maybe the league and the players have negotiated the start of the season. Maybe someone’s engaged. Maybe someone’s girl is pregnant. Travis looks out at the lake.

He has a worse thought. Maybe it’s Patty. Maybe Patty signed with another team. Patty is an RFA and should be already signed with the Flyers but he’s still not signed. Travis hates to think that Flyers would give up on Patty. Not that Patty’s talking to him. Everything is so fucked up. Maybe it would be better if Patty signed with another team. Better for everyone.

Then the phone starts ringing. Ok, it must be really important. Travis goes inside to find his phone. By the time he finds it in the kitchen, it’s stopped ringing. The missed call is from Claude. Travis thumbs through the texts. Oh, Patty signed a one year deal with the Flyers. Signed a one year deal, minimum qualifying. Travis is, well, he’s something. Relieved maybe? Yes, relieved for sure. At least Flyers management hasn’t given up on Patty. But a minimum deal? Nolan fucking Patrick was the number two draft pick in the 2017 draft. He should be worth more than $874,000 and one year.

Travis calls Claude.

“G, what’s up?, Travis greets his captain.

“Did you see they signed Patty?” 

“Yeah, yeah, that’s ... uh ... good news. Awesome.” Travis is trying to sound normal. But he can’t think of what normal would sound like. Because if things were normal, Travis would already know because Patty would have called him first.

“TK,” Claude says gently. “You should call him.”

“I’ve fucking tried. He won’t take my calls,” Travis says bitterly. “I don’t even know what I did.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know. There’s a lot I didn’t know. Trust me. You should just call him. Also, well, umm.” Then Claude pauses and clears his throat before going on. “Also management wants...” . 

Travis interrupts, “What? What does management fucking want?” 

“Hey, TK, calm down. Look. I said there’s a lot going on. Management wants Patty to live with you. Just this year. He can’t live with Hazy because his girl is moving in with him.”

“Oh right. So since Karly and I broke up, I’m the one? There are plenty of guys he could live with. Why me?”

“Like, I said. It’s complicated. You are actually the only one he can live with and because of his medical condition, he can’t live alone.”

“I’m the only one? What the fuck? He’s not speaking to me. No fucking way,” Travis says as he paces through the house.

Claude is silent, considering carefully what to say next.

“TK. I get that you’re pissed. I would be too. But you don’t know everything. If you did, you’d feel differently. Just call him. If after you talk to him, you don’t want him to live with you, I’ll run interference with management. OK?” 

Travis trusts Claude. More than anyone else on the team. Well, except for Patty… or, at least, Patty before this year. 

“Fuck. G. I’m not sure I even want to talk to Patty. Much less live with him. He, like, ghosted me. Totally. Who does that? To their best friend.”

“I know. I’m just saying...Travis... if you knew.”

“I know he’s gay, okay. Last time I saw him, he was making out with that fucking indie rocker in a club. He didn’t seem like he had migraine that night. Whatever, I don’t care if he’s gay. I’m bi for fuck’s sake.” Travis stops talking suddenly. He didn’t mean to come out to his captain. He’s been trying to keep his sexuality on the down low.

Claude laughs. “Yeah. I figured you were, well, something, not straight. I assumed you were gay actually until you started with Karly.”

Travis is so surprised he sputters, “What? You knew?”

“Sure. It is pretty obvious. You and Patty. Well, it's obvious to me anyway.”

“I literally don’t know what you’re talking about, G. There is no me and Patty.”

“No you and Patty, _yet_. Look TK, I’m a gay man and trust me when I say there’s something there.”

“Oh.” Travis is at a loss for words. He didn’t know Claude was gay. Suddenly a lot of things make sense. Like Danny Briere. “Oh. Oh,” Travis mutters as he puts it altogether.

Claude laughs. “‘Oh’ is right. So welcome to the club and all that. Danny said I should have talked to you when you joined the team. And as usual, he’s right.”

Travis is at loss for words which is unusual for him. For the moment, he’s forgotten about Patty. He just came out. And Claude’s gay. It feels a little like The Big Bang. It’s like his universe exploded and now is expanding, hurtling him into an alternate reality.

“So TK,” Claude gently interrupts Travis’ shocked silence, “Trust me when I say, give Patty a call. I’d tell you myself what’s going on but it’s not my story to tell.”

Travis forgot about Patty momentarily but Claude’s words pull him back in the present moment. “Oh, right. Ok,” he says in daze. “But I don’t think he’ll talk to me. I’m not even sure I should talk to him, honestly. Whatever.”

“He’ll talk to you. Call me later and let me know how things go. Ok. Teeks, bye now.” Claude rings off abruptly probably to avoid Travis’ questions and dithering.

**10:30 AM EDT, October 16, 2020, Port Stanley, Ontario**

After hanging up with his captain, Travis stares at black screen of his phone for a minute. He googles “Nolan Patrick Contract,” No way is Patty going to buy a place in Philly when he’s on a one year minimum contract. Patty probably shouldn’t live alone. He’s moody anyway and rumor has it that being on injured reserve all last season wasn’t great for his mental health, Obviously. Travis is not sure that he is actually the best person for Patty to live with. 

They certainly shouldn’t live together if they can’t even talk to each other. Travis doesn’t even know what happened. It’s been the weirdest year. First, Patty didn’t show up for camp. Management told them that Patrick had a migraine condition and would join the team later. Then he was living with Kevin Hayes instead of his own apartment. He was living with Hazy but they only saw Patty at a distance when he came to see the team doctor or trainers. It was like Patty disappeared. And Hazy was breezy and completely uninformative. Management was cagey. Patty just stopped taking Travis’ calls in July and never responded to his texts. With no explanation, they went from being like brothers, from being each other’s best friend on the team to nothing. At first Travis tried. He called. He texted. He dropped by the apartment. But Patty never answered the phone or the door. And Hazy wouldn’t let him in.

Honestly it has been a terrible year, even before the fucking pandemic shut down the season. Travis and Karly broke up. That was bad enough. And he missed Patty on the ice. But Patty’s ghosting him felt worse than a break up. 

Maybe he could have talked to someone about it. It turns out he could have talked to Claude. But he didn’t even know what to say. There weren’t exactly words for what he was feeling. Travis fell back on the discipline that got him to the NHL in the first place and made the player with highest point total on the Flyers this year. Travis is a more successful hockey player than his raw talent would suggest. He’s in that tier of players below true franchise players. The tier where, as a prospect, teams are gambling when they draft you. How successful you are is really down to how hard you work and how grounded you are. Working hard isn’t just training, practicing, and keeping to the diet, there is a mental component to it. Under Travis’ fun-loving, mouthy, country boy exterior is a disciplined professional who compartmentalizes negative emotion and distraction so effectively that no one can even tell that anything is wrong. 

If he’s honest, Travis would love to live with Patty. He’s liked him from the start, from their first training camp. Their paths never crossed before the Flyers. But from the moment Travis saw him, well, it was a moment, a moment of something. A crackle of chemistry. When the press pushed the bromance angle of their friendship, they saw it too. The chemistry really makes sense because Travis is an alpha and Nolan a beta. There shouldn’t be chemistry. They should be inert to each other. So Travis just ignored it.

Travis shakes his head. It’s not going to get any easier so he scrolls through his contacts for Nolan’s number. The last message they exchanged was in July 2019. Fuck. He thinks he’s not going to text Patty though it’s tempting. But he’s not a coward. He’ll call. It’s earlier in Manitoba but not too early. Patty probably won’t pick up. He hopes that Patty won’t pick up. Who is Travis kidding? He hopes Patty will pick up. But he’s been hoping for Patty to answer his calls for a year and he never does.

**10:30 AM EDT, October 16, 2020, Port Stanley, Ontario**

“Trav?” Nolan’s voice sounds surprised, maybe hopeful. And he called him Trav which is what his family and Ontario friends call him. It’s weirdly intimate.

“Yeah.” He pauses and goes on even though his heart is beating so fast, “Hi Patty. Congratulations on the contract.”

Nolan snorts. “Whatever, dude. Nothing compared with your 5 mill.”

Travis isn’t sure what he expected. But it wasn’t this. Patty just slipping back into that wry, easy vibe he’s always had with Travis as if nothing had happened. Like it was no big deal that Travis, who was a lower draft pick, is making serious bank and Nolan Patrick, number two draft pick and hope of the franchise, is making the league minimum. Like it was no big deal that they were talking for the first time in over a year.

Travis could chirp him, keep it light, keep talking. Let Patty deflect or whatever he’s doing. Talking is one of Travis’ superpowers. He never shuts up. But he can’t slip into the regular banter. He can’t chirp him about his salary. Travis isn’t a dick.

But not chirping him just makes it obvious that it’s awkward. Travis just wants to hang up. But he wants to know what is going on.

Nolan clears his throat as the silence gets more and more awkward.

“So, what did I do to deserve a call from Travis Konecky?” There’s something in his voice. Like a weird bravado. It’s almost as if he is pretending that Travis hasn’t been calling him, instead of the other way around.

Travis opens his mouth and blurts, “Do you want to live with me, in Philly, this season?”

“What?,” Nolan sounds confused. 

“Hazy’s girlfriend is moving in or something so you are going to need a place.” 

“What? What about Karly? No way am I living in your love shack.” 

“We broke up.”

“Oh. Oh.” Patty sounds stunned.

Travis wonders if Nolan is still with that indie rocker dude but he doesn't know to ask so he blathers instead. “So, I’ve got space and you need a place.” 

Travis can tell almost for certain exactly what expression is on Patty’s face. Suspicion.

Sure enough, Patty asks, “Did G. put you up to this?”

Travis laughs a little and says, “Kind of but not really. Like, I didn’t know you were coming back until he called. Because your sorry ass didn’t call me. And I didn’t know that Hazy’s getting serious with his girl. And management thinks—”

Patty interrupts, “Management thinks?”

“Well, yes. According to G.”

Nolan snorts And Travis laughs. And they’re both laughing.

“That’s fucked up.”

“I know, right?” Travis agrees wholeheartedly. There is a silence.

Then Patty says, “Sure, TK, I’ll obey our overlords and be your roomie”, like he’s doing Travis a favor.

After he hangs up, Travis is more relieved than he would have expected to be. It is only after a few deep breaths that he realizes that he never asked Patty about whatever mysterious thing G said would explain everything. It was so easy just to slip back into their old groove.

**10:00 AM CDT, October 16, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba**

Nolan’s lying on his bed. In shock. Did that just happen? Did Travis Konecky just call him and ask him to live with him? No questions asked? Did Nolan say yes? Yes, he did. What the fuck? Seriously what the fuck?

Did G tell him? He texts Claude to ask. Claude responds with “Nope. Of course not.”

Now what?

He missed the whole 2019-2020 season for a “migraine condition”. That’s what the team said anyway. But anyone was paying attention could tell that it didn’t quite add up. It wasn’t a concussion injury — the team was firm about that. But otherwise they were vague about what was going on. Vague about treatments. Vague about symptoms. It seemed like he finally was going to start playing in March. Then the league shut down. When the league started again Nolan was not invited to the playoff training camp.

When the press got a chance to talk to Nolan about it, he was tight lipped about it. “I’m not going to answer that,” he said over and over. 

Hockey is a tight knit fraternity. Players don’t talk to the press about anything. They don’t criticize teammates, they don’t gossip, they don’t leak. Bland platitudes is all you get. You can’t tell if they don't know what is going on or if they do and they just aren’t telling. But this time it was because no one knew the real story.

The only people who really knew what was going on with Nolan were Nolan, his parents, his doctors, management and the coach, the captain, and Keven Hayes. It was an actual secret. The secret was Nolan Patrick was an omega. He’d gone into heat in July of 2019 and he just didn’t come out of it.

It was a secret because omegas couldn’t play in professional leagues. It was illegal. They did play, of course, a few anyway. Most omegas were small and delicate and it was easy to see they were omega long before their first heat. Most couldn’t have passed even if they had wanted to. But very occasionally there was an omega who could pass for an alpha or a beta and was talented enough to play and wanted to.

To pass, you needed three things. You had to be big and tall and aggressive. Nolan had that. His face was on the pretty side but his body said “beta”. Your family had to unconditionally support the subterfuge right from the very beginning. Nolan had that. Nolan came from an athletic family. His parents could see from an early age that he was usually talented and they were bound and determined that he should have the opportunity to play hockey for as long as he wanted to. And thirdly you had to take powerful heat suppressing drugs and they had to work. Nolan had that, at first. Nolan would take the drugs throughout the season. Then in off season he would stop taking them and go into heat a couple of times over the summer. Heat usually lasted a couple of days.

But then the drugs stopped working. Persistent Heat Syndrome (PHS) was a rare side effect of the heat suppressants that showed up after a few years. Researchers were studying PHS but it was poorly understood. It wasn’t actually full heat. A person couldn’t survive permanent full heat. But even a low grade heat was impossible to cover up. Any alpha could sense it and with enough exposure to the omega pheromones could identify the source. 

It was illegal for Nolan to be playing at all. The only reason that Flyers drafted him is that he showed such promise. But now the PHS put the Flyers in a difficult position. The heat cycles were so rapid that Nolan would be fine for a day or two and then back in low grade heat. So he couldn’t practice or travel with the team. The whole team were alphas except for Hazy, the lone beta. Nolan was the number two draft pick and a lot was riding on his success. Sometimes PHS would go into a kind of remission or vanish if the right treatment could be found. Nolan tried vitamin D injections. Shock treatment. Steroids. Acupuncture. Keto diet. Nothing worked. Finally in July he got into a clinical trial at Duke University testing a new suppressant. With one treatment his heat receded and by the second one it was gone.

The team, his agent, his parents watched closely as the weeks passed. The team made the minimum qualifying offer to retain Nolan’s rights. A year ago the idea of taking a paltry $874,000 and a one year deal would have been unthinkable. But now Nolan was grateful to still be on the team and he accepted the offer two days before the deadline. If these drugs work and Nolan has a good year, then he can negotiate a new deal next off season.

He can’t live alone. If he goes into heat he’s too vulnerable and the team is vulnerable. And it has to be someone on the team because Nolan could go into heat on the road. Hazy is the only beta and sworn to secrecy. But Hazy was only willing to do it for a year which was fair. Now that problem is solved. He’s living with TK. 

TK is his best friend on the team. Or was his best friend. The team insisted that Nolan not tell anyone including TK what was going on. Nolan couldn’t lie so he just didn’t talk to him at all. So TK’s out of the blue invitation to live together even when TK had no idea what was going on was a surprise to say the least. Management said he could tell the player he lived with roomed on the road with what was going on. So now he has to figure out a way to tell TK.

**2 PM EDT, October 17, 2020, Port Stanley Ontario**

The next day, Travis picks up his phone and opens his messages. He’s going to text Patty.

Travis knows that Patty’s in Winnipeg staying with his parents. He didn’t say that he was losing his mind but Travis bets he is. Patty’s guarded. In this weird way that is so obvious. Some guys are private but they are smooth and you don’t notice that they are keeping you at arms length. But Nolan’s just intense and aloof but at the same time his face is so transparent you can tell exactly what he’s thinking. He doesn’t have to say anything. Sometimes in the locker room with the media or the bench, Travis doesn’t even want to look at him. He’s too vulnerable. His pride, shame and hope all shows. It’s exhausting. Travis wonders if Nolan is actually cut out for the NHL. Not his skills but his personality. 

He taps out a text, “You wanna come here?” No, he deletes and taps out. “Come and hang with me at the cabin.” Less of a request, more of an order. “Duck Hunting. Dwyane could fit you in.”

Travis hasn’t actually asked his trainer Dwyane but he knows that Dwyane could find time to train Nolan Patrick.

“When?” The response is quick.

“Anytime. I’m here until training camp.”

There is a thumbs up emoji in response and then nothing.

Later in the day, Travis thumbs through texts. Mostly on the family thread. Dinner on Sunday with Chase. And one from Nolan.

“I’m buying a ticket. Flying into Pearson so I can see a specialist in the GTA.”

“When?”

“Monday. Could you come and get me?”

“Yup, Just send details.”

So now after not having seen Patty for a year, now he’s going to be here, in his house. Travis isn’t sure what he’s doing. Then Travis calls Dwyane.  
  


**3 PM EDT, October 19, 2020, Pearson International Airport, Toronto, Ontario**

Patty looks older. It’s been a long time. And he’s lost that boyishness in his face and body. More of a man somehow. It’s not just the beard and the weight. But the boyish innocence is gone. Patty was a teenager when he came into the league. He was both wary and unguarded in that mixture that some teens have where they don’t tell you anything but you can see every feeling. Travis was never like that. Travis is more of a “what you see is what you get” kind of a person. Travis doesn’t have many complicated feelings to hide. In fact, the only complicated feelings he can think of are the ones he has about Patty.

Patty just looks happy to see him and gives him a tight hug. Travis laughs and hugs him back. He opens up the back of the SUV and they throw Patty’s gear bags and duffle in there with Travis’ gear.

There is no awkwardness. Just like no time has passed. Nolan is chirping his driving and takes over the music within five minutes. More than anything he seems relaxed.

They drive through Tim Hortons. Travis says, “You look good, Pats. How are your headaches?” 

Patty’s face falls. “Teeks. I’ve got to tell you something. And like, please don’t, like, flip out. I would have told you but the team said I couldn’t. “

“Okay. What is it?” Travis' heart is beating fast.

“It wasn’t migraines,” Patty says softly with apprehension showing on his face.

Travis is confused. “Not migraines? What...” His mind goes to a dark place. Brain tumor. Cancer. HIV.

“No. Not my head. It was PHS.” 

Travis thinks he’s heard of that but can’t think of what it is. “PHS?”

“Persistent Heat Syndrome. I went into heat and it never stopped.”

“What? Heat? But that’s... You’re a beta. Wait, what?” Travis can’t quite understand the implications of what Patty is saying.

“I’m an omega. TK.”

Travis looks at him, forgetting that he’s driving and quickly back to the road. He puts on his turn signal to exit the 401. He can’t drive and talk about this.

They roll to a stop.

“You are an omega? How? I mean you don’t look like an omega. Wait. It’s illegal. Wait. Management knows. Does the NHL know?” The questions just pour out. “Patty, what the fuck?”

Patty tells him everything.

“TK. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you.” Patty finally stops talking.

“I get it. G said I would get it and he was right. He wouldn’t tell me, you know. ‘It’s Patty’s story to tell’ and that shit.” Travis grins at Patty. 

“What happened with that Joy Mountain indie douche?” Travis just wants to get it out of the way. The last time Travis saw Patty was at a club in Philly making out with Matt Quinn the lead singer of Mt. Joy.

Nolan looks at him, surprised. “So we’re talking about that?”

Travis grinned. “You know me. Talk, talk, talk. Never shuts up” He’s quoting what Nolan said about him when they were rookies and were in a Flyers documentary.

Nolan smiles ruefully but doesn’t say anything.

Travis says, “I was so mad. Like I hadn’t seen you in months and supposedly you were sick. And then I see you with that douche.”

“I thought, well, when you saw us together and you looked so angry, I thought...”

“You thought that I was a homophobic asshole? That’s fair. I just didn’t know what to say. It was weird that you didn’t tell me you were gay because we were supposedly best friends. But it was way weirder to see you out at a club drinking when you wouldn’t call me. It made me wonder about our friendship.”

Patty says, “No one knows I’m gay. Well, my sister knows and some friends from home know. But no one in the NHL. And Matt knows obviously. That was so stupid that I went out that night. I went into heat. And stayed in heat for like three weeks. That night. He talked me into it, saying I was no fun. And I paid for it. “

“Making out in the hall outside a toilet at Voyeur was not that bright either. Lucky it was only me who saw you,” Travis says.

“What were you doing at Voyeur anyway?” Patty asks suddenly curious about why Travis was at a gay club in the first place..

“You aren’t the only one with secrets.” Travis gives Patty a steady look. And Patty blushes and turns away.

“Well, he broke up with me anyway. He wanted to see other people. Tired of waiting for me to get better. Probably was tired of my whiny, sad ass. To be honest. It’s okay. I’m getting over it,” Patty says, still not looking at Travis.

Travis is quiet and then says quietly, “To be honest, I’ve missed your whiny ass and your stupid indie bullshit. And your hiphop.”

Nolan looks back at him. “If we’re being honest, I’ve missed your redneck ways and bad taste in music.”

So that’s how Nolan Patrick ended up staying at Travis Konecky’s cabin for two weeks. Travis just rolled him into his routine. Training. Fishing. Video Games. Duck Hunting. Drinking with the boys. More video games. More fishing. Golf when it wasn’t totally freezing. And a lot more Kendrick Lamar than Travis is totally comfortable with.


End file.
